


Professional Detachment

by taylor_renae



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Canonical character deat, M/M, mckirk - Freeform, sad stuff, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-15
Updated: 2014-11-15
Packaged: 2018-02-25 12:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2622563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_renae/pseuds/taylor_renae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard McCoy had yet to learn the art of "professional detachment".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Professional Detachment

Leonard McCoy had always had a hard time with the concept of “professional detachment”. Every time a patient had died on his operating table he had felt responsible and grieved in a fashion only he and bartenders deemed acceptable. A drink or two or four of the hardest bourbon he could afford rested heavily on his breath for hours as he mourned. His father’s death was no exception to this. It was very possibly the lowest he had ever fallen. He turned to alcohol for comfort while his wife did likewise to a man Leonard had never met until he stood by his now ex-wife’s side as they waited for the doctor to sign the divorce papers. His life and drinking problem astonishingly improved when he met Jim Kirk. If he lost anyone on the operating table or biobed he mourned and drank, but drank significantly less. For one, Jim sat with him and they mourned their lost crew member together. Two, the good bourbon drained faster with two people milking the bottle. Three, with Jim at his side, Leonard didn’t really feel like drinking himself into an early grave. Perhaps Jim felt the same way. So the day Jim’s pale, motionless face appeared in a body bag on his operating table was the day he felt it all crumble and fall away around him. Everything he had or could have built with Jim was gone. Yes, Leonard McCoy had yet to learn the art of “professional detachment.”


End file.
